Technology Could Prevent Bird Strikes at Dallas Love Field

Love Field will be first U.S. airport to deploy system that identifies, tracks and alerts airport personnel about birds

By Ben Russell •Published December 26, 2017•Updated on December 26, 2017 at 11:02 am

New technology will be installed at Dallas Love Field in 2018 that is expected to reduce the number of bird strikes reported there.

Dallas City Council members approved the purchase of the Pharovision Sentinel at the council's Dec. 13 meeting. The system can "detect animals, people and foreign objects within a five-mile radius of aircraft," according to a news release from the City of Dallas.

"The system can automatically determine what the object is, track the object, and alert personnel," the news release stated. "The Pharovision 'Sentinel' tool also can detect people who have trespassed into the airport, as well as drones that fly into Love Field’s airspace and has future ability to detect runway Foreign Object Debris."

There have been 180 confirmed bird strikes at Dallas Love Field in 2017, a rate of approximately one every other day over the course of an entire year.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been concerned about the presence of birds at Bachman Lake, on the immediate north side of the runways for Love Field, for at least four years.

In 2013, the FAA informed Love Field that airport staff needed to take "immediate action" to clear out the flocks of birds that gather at Bachman Lake that could damage or bring down an aircraft.

At the time, NBC 5 Investigates reported that, according to a federal database, in 2013, on average, at least one plane per week hit a bird at Dallas Love Field.

Love Field will be the first airport in the United States to implement the Pharovision Sentinel system as part of the airport's Federal Aviation Administration-mandated Wildlife Hazard Management Plan, according to a city news release.